I'm not quite sure what it is that people want here. It can't be too high otherwise it detracts from the church. None of the buildings in Church Street or immediately outside the church (ie. the Owain and the Market Tavern) are anything to write home about. The area is quite pleasant because they are relatively modest in scale and compliment each other. Anything too different here would jar, in my opinion.

If the materials are good on this then I think it will be much better than the existing. The old unit had a horrible configuration which is why it was pretty much empty. This new build already has two decent tenants signed up which will make Church street a much livlier place.

Karl wrote:I'm not quite sure what it is that people want here. It can't be too high otherwise it detracts from the church. None of the buildings in Church Street or immediately outside the church (ie. the Owain and the Market Tavern) are anything to write home about. The area is quite pleasant because they are relatively modest in scale and compliment each other. Anything too different here would jar, in my opinion.

If the materials are good on this then I think it will be much better than the existing. The old unit had a horrible configuration which is why it was pretty much empty. This new build already has two decent tenants signed up which will make Church street a much livlier place.

I think it has 4 tenants:Mowgli Street FoodThe BotanistPhoHonest Burger

Unless some of those have pulled out given the casual dining boom and bust.

Ash wrote:Now that is truly horrid. Horrible, cobbled together pastiche.

I just did a little street view around Poundbury, and I know its not to everyone's taste. But I actually really quite like it. It is, if you like, "authentic" pastiche. Its like reproduction artwork. Not like the po-mo kind of pastiche that I agree sometimes looks truly awful.

It balances car use and walkability well; it has a good mix of building scales and street types (squares, streets, muses); and an interesting mix of broadly Georgian type facades. It manages to get quite a lot of small businesses (shops, cafes, etc.) in a new housing development which is really only of pretty modest size - which is almost unheard of.

Karl wrote:I'm not quite sure what it is that people want here. It can't be too high otherwise it detracts from the church. None of the buildings in Church Street or immediately outside the church (ie. the Owain and the Market Tavern) are anything to write home about. The area is quite pleasant because they are relatively modest in scale and compliment each other. Anything too different here would jar, in my opinion.

If the materials are good on this then I think it will be much better than the existing. The old unit had a horrible configuration which is why it was pretty much empty. This new build already has two decent tenants signed up which will make Church street a much livlier place.

I think it has 4 tenants:Mowgli Street FoodThe BotanistPhoHonest Burger

Yes - forgot about the Botanist. Didn't know about Honest Burger to be fair.

Unless some of those have pulled out given the casual dining boom and bust.

RandomComment wrote:I just did a little street view around Poundbury, and I know its not to everyone's taste. But I actually really quite like it. It is, if you like, "authentic" pastiche. Its like reproduction artwork. Not like the po-mo kind of pastiche that I agree sometimes looks truly awful.

It balances car use and walkability well; it has a good mix of building scales and street types (squares, streets, muses); and an interesting mix of broadly Georgian type facades. It manages to get quite a lot of small businesses (shops, cafes, etc.) in a new housing development which is really only of pretty modest size - which is almost unheard of.

I was pleasantly surprised from my little google explore!

Actually, I'm not that down on Poundbury which is a greenfield development with some interesting ideas. What I'm against is the idea that that sort of pastiche would be suitable for a sensitive site on Church Street.

Apart from St John's itself there are zero buildings that are more that a couple of centuries old surrounding the site.

If you wanted to take some cues from nearby buildings, the Greggs at the High Street end is one of Cardiff's few surviving Georgian buildings, the Old Arcade is a fine piece of Victoriana while the former Co-op department store (now a Harverster) is a restrained piece of mid twentieth century design. Nothing, absoutely nothing, screams out for faux medieval pillars!